Davis refuses to bail on Vikings

On Sports

National letter- of-intent day is still a month away (Feb. 6), but Portland State football coach Jerry Glanville already may have won one of his biggest recruiting battles a few days ago.

His offensive coordinator, Mouse Davis, is nationally respected and is frequently offered jobs, and the latest overture was a big one. But Davis passed on it.

'Mouse is always going to get job offers,' Glanville says. 'But this one would have quadrupled his pay. Luckily, he and I aren't in it for the pay.

'He turned it down, but just like Mouse, he recommended someone else on our staff.'

Davis, while on his way from New Orleans - where he watched Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl - to Houston, scoffed at the notion of leaving PSU at this time.

'It was a pro job,' Davis says. 'Been there, done that. I'm not trying to develop a résumé. I've turned down a couple of jobs. I'm trying to get Portland State going. I thought we could do it in one year, but it's going to take another year.'

Glanville is facing a critical time for his Viking program. After a holiday 'dead period' during which coaches cannot contact prospective recruits, he is coming up on three big weekends.

'The weekend of Jan. 11 is going to be huge,' Glanville says. 'We're bringing in all the kids we want that are within a six-hour area of here. It's a group of about a dozen kids who could really change who we are and what we're doing.

'The weekend after that, we'll bring in all the kids from outside six hours away. The weekend after that, all the JCs (junior-college players), plus anyone else who couldn't make it on the previous weekends.'

Glanville is happy to share his recruiting secrets. He's proud of what he has to offer.

'The city is the big draw with kids from outside the six hours,' he says. 'The kids from California, they love this city. Portland is the world's best-kept secret. If we can get kids to visit us up here, we usually get them.'

Glanville figures the school itself and PGE Park also are recruiting tools. And he knows the quickest way to a young football player's heart.

'A big part of recruiting is food,' he says. 'We take them places where they're going to love the food.'

And that's anywhere from Oba in the Pearl District to the Old Spaghetti Factory in South Waterfront.

'They walk in to the Spaghetti Factory and go, 'Wow,' ' Glanville says.

Davis believes the Vikings are going to have a solid recruiting year.

'It's not a real problem getting kids,' he says. 'You just have to know what you're looking for. We want speed and quickness, and we can get by with kids a little smaller than the ones other people want.

'We already have some kids from JCs,' he says, 'and we have some more coming in. We're going to get the old Vikings going.'

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